The church does not have a particularly good track record in welcoming the truth as it emerges in unseen ways

Reverend Dr Graeme Fancourt is priest-in-charge at St Luke with St Bartholomew in the university area

The church does not have a particularly good track record in welcoming the truth as it emerges in unseen ways.

A quick glance through various historical events confirms that the church has a nasty habit of fearing the truth.

For example, when Nicolaus Copernicus argued that the world was not the centre of the cosmos, the church prevented the publication of his thinking as it appeared to jar with a single line in the book of Joshua.

The church is, too often, the political party that likes to say “No”.

Preservation of that which is good is, of course, an essential task of all of humanity.

The church, however, cannot only be a conserving group; the National Trust at prayer, if you will.

Learning the truth is as much about welcoming new discoveries, as it is about defending inherited wisdom.

Of course, when an idea is emerging out of science or social thinking, the discernment as to whether it is wisdom or hubris is a threatening time for everyone involved.

And those feelings are all too clear in the debates of our own day.

However, if the church simply rejects ideas on the basis of it being new, then it is shutting itself off from the potential to grow.

The curious thing about the church is that, for it to be faithful to God, it must be humble enough to listen for the voice of God in the prophets who are outside of its own traditions.

If it doesn’t, it will struggle to know of what it should repent, and so grow in truth, and flourish in life.

This is an excerpt of a sermon, the full text of which can be found in the sermons section of www.stpauls.co.uk.